Thursday, January 14, 2010

Masterpieces from Paris - Maurice Denis again

Dawn Start
20 x 20 cm
Acrylic on board
Last night, our daughter rang to cancel a dinner arrangement for this evening. She and her husband had just been called to help in a bush rescue in the Blue Mountains and they were hurriedly packing before driving 300km in the night, ready for an early morning start. This morning, I googled to see if I could find any details and learned that 6 canyoners were 36 hours overdue from a day trip. There was a photo of my daughter and several other searchers disappearing into the misty dawn. Of course, they were on my mind all day.
On the way back from helping my husband choose new glasses, I stopped off at the Gallery to find an inspiring painting and was drawn to Maurice Denis' Landscape with Green Trees. It is a mysterious picture, figures gliding through a forest towards an angel. I will do a painting about the rescuers.
Late this afternoon, the canyoners were located but tragically, it seems there was a rock fall and one of the group has died and two are injured. My daughter and son in law are back at the rescue base and will be home tomorrow.

15 comments:

A sad but touching picture, Alison. The misty sky and trees show so well the vast unknown before them,yet the sturdy figure moves forward with great determination to find these people. We owe Rescue people a debt we can never repay. Thank you for sharing this with us. I know you are proud of your daughter to be part of this, but it has to be a worry, too.annie

I've so enjoyed looking at the way you take paintings from the exhibition as touchpoints for your own - the interaction of 19th century masters with 21st century life, and your thoughts on the process.

So I've found your blog Alison! I followed the link to the original painting and felt the connection/disconnection, I say disconnection becuase of how the story turned out but thankfully all the resuers were alright. I'm pleased to have found your blog, thank you! SarahT

Alison

My illustrated childhood memoir

About my 'memory paintings'.

Inspired by Neil Curtis in his book, 'The Memory Book', my memory paintings catch impressions and moments from my first ten years, in St Andrews, Scotland in the 60's. They are all 12 x 9 cm, mostly pen and watercolour, on Arches HP. They are now published in an 8" x 10" book through Blurb.